United Airlines investigating worker who threatened to call ICE on passenger at SFO

SAN FRANCISCO – United Airlines says it is investigating one of its employees after they were caught on camera threatening to call ICE on a passenger at San Francisco International Airport.

What we know:

Julio Varela and his family were at the airport on July 14 trying to correct a mistake on one of his daughters’ tickets so they could catch a flight they had booked to Montreal.

The family had been bouncing back and forth between the United Airlines and Air Canada desks when the United Airlines employee said she was no longer able to help them and said the family would not be able to fly that day, Varela told Storyful.

Varela said he began to record the confrontation after that, and his footage shows him and the employee calling each other rude while she also takes out her phone to record Varela.

At one point in the video, the woman can be heard telling Varela, “Maybe we should call ICE on you,” adding that he did not “act like a citizen.”

“For her to say that at her place of employment is completely shocking and degrading and dehumanizing, and intimidating because what’s going on with ICE and how they deal with people, whether they’re citizens, whether they’re not citizens, whether they’re white, whether they’re women, nurses or mothers,” Varela said.

Varela said that, despite the setback, he and his family were ultimately able to make it to Montreal and back to the Bay Area.

What’s next:

Varela said United Airlines issued him an apology in private for the altercation, and the airline released a statement reading:

“We’re looking into the interaction in this video, but don’t have anything additional to share at this time.”

Immigration and criminal defense attorney Ronald Cabanayan told KTVU that the confrontation could be grounds for a civil rights lawsuit.

“If a person is being profiled based on their appearance, race, ethnicity or national origin without anything more would be a violation of a person’s civil rights,” Cabanayan said.